Advancement of e-learning and the need for industry alignment have given rise to radical upgrade of course ware, introduction of specialised programmes and deployment of modern methods of study, says Dr Rushen Chahal
The jobs which paid the highest in 2014 and skill sets that were the most in demand did not exist in 2010 and prorated the essential question for the 2020 pass-out batches —What will you be really doingIJ
No longer are the courses which draw text, practice and learning from the past 65 years relevant for a booming career. Not just the concepts but also the implementation and treatment methods have radically evolved and many rudimentary jobs now automated.
A radical example would be the BCom, BSc, BBA, MBA courses, where nothing has changed for the last 30 years. For some subjects the books written then are still being used for reference and as textbooks. How can one find employment with such skill setsIJ
The only option for survival of the course and the students enrolling in them are radical upgrade of the course ware and deploying modern methods of study. Some educational institutions having realised this are now offering specialisation courses like BCom with e-commerce, BSc in IT and BBA and MBA with Digital Marketing. These courses, which were a drag to study, are now enjoyable for a student and offer much better retention as the student is able to connect with real life scenarios like study of online shopping models, e-commerce and e-banking transaction systems, consumer behavior and IT technologies and systems at play. There are many institutes that are also offering four-year integration programme with dual degree of Bachelor and Master along with internships and student exchange programme.
‘Industry alignment is the need’ this very fact has been highlighted by all for the last 15 years and yet students continue to make the same mistake. A large number of specialised skill sets like dentists, MBBS doctors, engineers and research scientists find it difficult to settle down if they stop their e-learning process.
The industry requirement 30 years ago was a good profile with some domain knowledge. Today this has evolved into good profile, domain knowledge, demonstrated competence and very strong English language skills.
There are multiple cases where a BA pass with five years of experience and very strong English language skills is taking home Rs75,000 per month versus a BTech Computer Science graduate from a relatively good college still trying desperately to cross Rs45,000 per month.
There is not a single profession that has not been touched by IT, Automation and e-Business practices. Hence to avoid the problem that was witnessed in Japan – during the initial computerisation age – senior managers at the end of their learning curves were required to make business critical decisions where a lot of IT and automation suddenly came into play and their comprehension of the holistic scenarios was lost resulting in many wrong decisions. Japanese economy has been in recession for the last 23 years – well 23 years ago computers started moving in! Don’t really know if there is any similarity there but certainly this should have been the other way around looking at the fact that the Japanese were way ahead of almost all countries when it came to technology oriented business.
A true example is the biggest and most valued PhD today in management and IT would be a PhD in Facebook rather than old rudimentary Newtonian theories of the past. Facebook today is not just a platform for people to connect but the game is so much bigger that we would need to write a few books to explain the psychology, the sociology, the technology and a thousand other systems and practices at play on a single Facebook page.
Needless to say a PhD in Facebook would also open a host of lucrative job assignments for the student not just with Facebook but with giants like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and a million more companies and corporations. A student could work on artificial intelligence, predictive modelling, adaptive systems and forecasting theories and mechanisms, be it in technology or business processes or strategy and project implementation.
Similarly for Google, the certifications, the training and examinations are conducted by them free of cost and available on the google partners site, your Gmail id will get you the access and you can use the Google Badges on your CV.
(The writer is vice-chancellor, Rama University, Kanpur)